On Sunday, a Texas House committee released the most exhaustive account yet of the Uvalde school shooter including his planning, his attack and the fumbling police response to the murders.
Committee member Dustin Burrows, a Republican representative from Lubbock, told a news conference the police on scene that day fell short and should have done more. And associate dean at the school of criminology at Tarleton State University, Alex Del Carmen, told KRLD in Dallas it was a "failure at all levels."
The 77-page report cited “systemic failures” that 'left the school inadequately secured and the police officers who responded mired in confusion and bad information,' the New York Times reported.
Nearly 400 officers responded to the school that day, the report showed, 'yet the decision to finally confront the gunman was made by a small group of officers, including specially trained Border Patrol agents and a deputy sheriff from a neighboring county, the report found, concluding that others at the scene could have taken charge and done so far earlier.' the Times added.
The committee members, including Burrows, El Paso Democratic Representative Joe Moody and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, say they sought to create a comprehensive account the legislature can use to craft policies aimed at preventing future massacres.
After the detailed report of the law enforcement failures in Uvalde, some parents want more saying they want a face-to-face apology from the officers who waited more than an hour before confronting the killer. Some victims died on the way to the hospital, the Times reported, making 'it plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait for rescue.'
Overall, the report found 'no one was able to stop the gunman from carrying out the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, in part because of systemic failures and egregious poor decision making by nearly everyone involved who was in a position of power,' the Texas Tribune reported.
